Vikings victorious as NFL shines brightly in London

The NFL returned to London this weekend with the Minnesota Vikings taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Both teams were 0-3 coming into the game but it was the Vikings who triumphed on the hallowed turf 34-27 to get their first win of the season.

For the Steelers it was a much-improved performance from the previous three weeks but they will go into their bye week at 0-4 knowing that any playoff hopes have been extinguished.

Overall the UK fans got exactly what they wanted from the game it was high scoring and it went down to the final seconds of the game, only the second of the International Series games to be really close after the San Diego-New Orleans game in 2008.

I have been to two previous Wembley games and I have to say that this had the best atmosphere of the lot. Even though there were a lot of Steeler fans in the crowd the majority of people seemed to get behind the home team, the Vikings.

The Vikings did a great job of making it feel like a home game with everything from the team entrance to the cheerleaders and the Viking mascot Viktor!

Outside the ground there was a great atmosphere in the tailgate party outside, people were milling around enjoying the party while they waited for kick off.

It was amazing to see all the different jerseys represented though sadly there was no sighting of a Joey Harrington Lions jersey, maybe next time eh?

Minnesota got a big win and a result that could kicks start their season and you never know they may want to play in London every week!

It’s a long journey back for the Steelers after a loss but despite the result I think they seemed to have enjoyed their stay in the UK.

With another Wembley game in four weeks the fun doesn’t end for NFL fans, this years was a great step forward for the sport in this country and next year we could be seeing even more.

Jamie Allen

My name is Jamie Allen and I recently graduated in Journalism from Liverpool John Moores University. My main passion is writing about and watching football but NFL is another interest of mine, you can usually find me up all hours of the night watching sports from across the pond.